WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Alucarda 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:08.719 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:15.800 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob. 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:17.560 Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.400 And in today's episode of Weird House Cinema, we're going 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:23.160 to return once more to the wild world of Mexican 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:27.200 horror to consider a film and a filmmaker often celebrated 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:30.200 as one of its true greats. We'll be discussing the 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:35.199 nineteen seventy seven cult classic Alucarda, also known as Alucarda 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:39.320 The Daughter of Darkness, directed by Juan Lopez Montezuma. While 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:42.520 not well received by mainstream Mexican audiences at the time, 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:46.640 it has become an obvious cult classic, a midnight movie. 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:49.680 It's been championed by the likes of Germeal de Toro, 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:54.160 David J. Skahl, Michael Weldon, just to name a few. 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:57.120 This is one you poked around online and you can 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:03.120 see folks are constantly discovering and discovering Alokarda, and everyone 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:05.399 seems to be blown away by it when they encounter it. 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:07.959 I think it's exactly the kind of film right for 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:12.640 this sort of rediscovery, and I don't know a late 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:16.320 positive reception because of the different textures that it gets into. 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:19.480 A part of it feels like an art film. You know, 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:25.040 it has some really interesting writing that's not writing and 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.920 performance that is, you know, not just going through the 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:31.600 standard horror tropes. But then there is also a lot 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:35.320 of just standard horror exploitation content, and the way they 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:41.880 blend together is unusual and interesting. It's almost an intellectual film. 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:46.080 But then it's also just a you know, frenzied getting 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:47.640 naked with the devil kind of thing. 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:50.800 Yeah, yeah, this film is it's a lot of things, 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:56.080 as we'll discuss. There's definitely a strong European gothic horror 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.680 element to it, though to be clear, it is set 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:03.200 and filmed in Mexico, and then there's also a strong 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:07.280 avant garde surrealist element to it, and all of these 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:11.880 things kind of mixed together. As the name suggests, Alocardo, 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:14.600 which spelled backwards, is a Dracula. 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:19.240 This is certainly it is not just the Dracula. 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:23.680 Dracula yeah or yeah, or you know, it's the feminine 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:27.359 version of Alocarde, I guess. But yeah, so it's certainly 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:29.760 a vampire film, or at least a film with a 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.200 vampire in it. But it's also a lesbian love story. 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:36.280 It's a smoldering criticism of organized religion and just a 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.040 delirious fever dream of blasphemous horror. 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:44.639 Certainly, blasphemous is an interesting lesbian love story. Is I 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:49.480 wonder about the criticism of organized religion that is one 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:55.040 of the weirdest themes realized in the film. Because we 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:57.320 were sort of talking about this off mic, I would 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:01.320 say the middle stretch of the movie is strongly anti clerical, 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.760 and it sets up the Catholic authorities, the priests and 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:08.359 the and some of the nuns as almost the villains 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.240 of the movie. They're depicted as cruel and sadistic and 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:15.320 superstitious in these scenes with self flagellation and the torture 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.480 of Justine. But then there's a very strange turn where 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:23.280 essentially all of these these mad clerics that are being 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:25.040 set up as the villains in the middle of the 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:29.040 movie are vindicated and proven right well to a certain extent, 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:33.880 to a certain extent, and uh, then it's kind of like, wait, what, 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:38.560 Like the character who the doctor character who comes in 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:42.000 to criticize what they're doing to these to these poor girls, 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:45.480 is ultimately like humbled for his naive view of like 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:48.080 not believing that the Devil is real and will turn 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:49.560 nuns into zombies. 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:52.840 Well, this will be interesting to discuss. I would I 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:56.520 would argue that the clerical of side of things, that 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:59.440 they're never redeemed in this picture. I think I think 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.600 they're they're essentially villains throughout, but I don't. 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:02.920 Know there's there. 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:04.600 This is a great thing about this film is there's 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.040 a lot of room for discussion and interpretation. 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:09.200 I don't know if the main claricy I mean's certainly 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:11.320 like fatherless arro and stuff. I don't know if they're 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:13.560 ever made to look nice in the end, but they 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:16.520 are sort of proven right, like their worldview was the 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:18.120 correct one in the end. 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.360 To a certain extent. Well, well we'll get we'll get 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.479 back to this. But I think one way to think 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:29.279 about the film is to certainly compare it to Ken 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.520 Russell's nineteen seventy one masterpiece of the Devils, which of 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:36.080 course starred Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed. Like this film, 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:40.880 The Devils is often sometimes thrown under the broad subgenre 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:47.039 categorization of nonsploitation cinema, which it's a big tin nonsploitation. 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:49.200 I mean it's a small tin in some ways, but 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:55.280 a big ten in others. So others so called nonsploitation 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:59.920 films often center around explosions of sexuality, madness, and violence 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:04.320 in a convent setting, but in other cases the sleazier 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:08.760 exploitation elements are more upfront and center, and when none 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.440 exploitation is referenced, that's generally the sort of picture we 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.360 think of, right, you know, something a little more purely 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:20.159 scandalous without any kind of serious message wrapped up in 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:20.760 the offering. 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:23.320 Yeah, I mean to the extent that there is a 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.840 serious message. I think these movies are usually concerned mostly 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:30.240 with sexual repression, and that they will feature a lot 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:32.279 of you know, habit ripping by the third ACD. 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:32.680 Yeah. 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:35.640 Yeah, And The Devil's is certainly that sort of picture. 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:40.360 But in the Devils all of the conflict emerges from 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:42.599 this sexual repression. So we end up with you know, 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:47.800 mass hysteria, murder and madness and oppression, and sexual repression 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:51.919 is like the root cause of everything. Just to simplify 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:56.479 a great film. In this movie, however, as we've already 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.240 been alluding to, yes, there is sexual repression and just 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.880 general oppress from the Church. But we also come to 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:08.080 learn that, oh, yeah, the devil is apparently real. The God, 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.240 to some extent or another is also real. All these 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:14.800 supernatural forces are in play. And then, therefore, how does 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:19.600 that change our interpretation of madness and mass hysteria. 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:22.800 Not just God and the devil, but pyrokinesis and yeah, 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:27.400 zombies and vampirism. Like a lot of stuff gets thrown 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:28.280 in at the end there. 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.039 Yeah, And also the vision of God that we see 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:36.400 in this picture is at the very least a sterner God, 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:40.359 more of an Old Testament vengeance God, as opposed to 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:45.440 sort of like the benevolent grandfather power that is generally 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:47.719 more in play in some of your Gothic cars, where 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:49.960 it's like, oh, the power of God there is here 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.159 to serve as a massive battery for the crucifix that 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:56.680 you use to ward off the vampires. That's right. 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:58.839 Yeah, the power of God in many of these other 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:02.280 stories is there too save the protagonists at the end, 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:06.400 to help and to save here. To the extent that 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.480 God's power is made manifest, it is I think only 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:10.680 a punishing power. 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:11.400 Yeah. 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.480 If anything, it's like God is real, the devil is real. 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:17.840 These two forces are in opposition, and then humanity is 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:22.000 just ground to a pulp between these two opposing forces. Yeah, 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.880 and that may ultimately be the central message of the movie. 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:28.680 But again, this is a film that is going to 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:33.400 lend itself well to varying interpretations because it ultimately presents 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:37.840 kind of a kaleidoscope image of things, as we'll discuss. 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:40.520 All right. I don't have an elevator pitch for this one. 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:43.040 I don't know if you have something kindling there. 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:45.880 Joe, Well, not one that easily works just as text. 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:48.640 But I am imagining a kind of quick cut in 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:52.400 a trailer that I would put together for this film, 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:54.880 and it would be a Lukarta saying the line, do 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:58.240 you know how small creatures love each other? I'll show you, 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:00.520 and then it just cuts to everything being on fire. 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:05.000 That's good, that's good. All right. Well, let's go ahead 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.080 and listen to just a little bit of the trailer 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.520 audio for this picture, not the full trailer, I think, 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:12.840 and uh, and this is I believe going to be 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.800 the Spanish language trailer, as we'll discuss, though this movie 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:21.360 was filmed in English and then then dubbed into Spanish. 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:28.800 Alka Got the Father Command, Stee, Got the Son Command Stee, 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:31.920 God the Holy Ghost Command. 0:08:31.520 --> 0:09:07.720 Stee, Susanna Kamini a d not French Motuma. 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:15.040 All right, Well, if you would like to watch Alokarta 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:19.200 before proceeding with this episode or rewatch it, well, there 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:21.319 are at least a couple of main ways to view it. 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:25.680 I initially watched it on the Mondo Macabro DVD, which 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:28.640 has been out for a while now. They recently put 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:31.400 out another one of Montezuma's films, The Mention of Madness 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:33.839 on Blu Ray, But as far as I know, and 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.200 I was checking in a little bit throughout the year, 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.120 there's no word on Alokarta also getting the Blu Ray 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.240 treatment anytime soon, but obviously there's hope that that would 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:46.160 come to pass. The DVD is really solid though, film 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:49.480 quality is perfectly fine, and it features some nice extras 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:53.400 and as of this recording, you can also stream Alocarda 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:58.559 via the excellent Criterion channel. It's currently featured as part 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:02.560 of their ten film Nunsploit playlist, which includes some other 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:06.120 great films, including The Devils and So. As I was 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:08.679 rewatching parts of the film while working on notes, I 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.640 rewatched it on Criterion Channel and the film quality is 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:13.000 the same as on the DVD. 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.800 I also watched it on the Criterion Channel stream. That 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.160 was a good upload, I will say. So, you said 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:22.160 you've got the Mondo Macabro DVD. 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.400 Yes, or I rented it from Video Drum here in Atlanta. 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:27.319 I see, I've got one. I haven't watched yet, but 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:31.640 I've got a nunsploitation blu ray from Mondo Micabre for 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:36.440 a different film called Satanico Pandemonium. 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:39.680 Oh, that's another one. That's another title you frequently see 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.680 in discussion of nunsploitation. But I have not seen it myself. 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:45.679 I haven't seen it yet, so I can't vouch for 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:49.360 it either way. But yeah, that's by the same producer, 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:51.280 so I think they may have put out a number 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.720 of kind of wild nun films. 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:59.480 It's great to see Criterion Collection and Mondo Macabre coming together. 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:11.600 That's the same films. It's not always the case. All right, Well, 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.000 let's go ahead and jump into a discussion of the 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:16.599 folks involved in this picture, starting at the top with 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:21.000 Juan Lopez Montezuma, the director. He also has story and 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.520 screenplay credit producer and I'm not sure which one he is, 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:26.320 but he also has a bit role as a monk 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:28.280 in this one of the sort of hinchman monks that 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.760 run around fetching things, tying people up. That's sort of 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.520 you know, typical nonspolitation monk business. 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:36.640 Those guys are supposed to be monks, the guys in 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:38.160 the black robes with the hoods. 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:40.440 I think, so, yeah, that's so. 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.719 Weird because they nothing about them seems like they're of 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.480 a religious order. They are hinchmen, as you said, they're 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:49.199 used to. They're like the mechanics of the film, you know, 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:51.840 they're they're the ones who have to like lift things 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:53.960 and carry them around or tie somebody up. 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.040 Yeah, I would say that, as is often the case, 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.839 this movie's probably not good as primary search for how 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:05.679 monasteries and convents work. It has a lot to say 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:09.200 about Catholicism, but it is not a good primary source 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:13.839 for information on Catholicism. Montezuma lived nineteen thirty one through 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:18.480 nineteen ninety five. Mexican actor, producer, writer, TV and radio personality, 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:22.160 and director, best known for a trio of nineteen seventies 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.920 horror films that really challenged just what a Mexican horror 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:29.199 film could be. He'd worked as an actor previously, mostly 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:33.720 on the stage, but also started a long running Mexico 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:37.520 city radio program called Panorama di jazz. I don't think 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:39.480 he stayed on it long, but he started it and 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.640 it apparently lasted for a very long time, kind of 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.360 an institution. He also served as a I couldn't find 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:48.360 any clips of this, but he was apparently a sort 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:50.160 of horror host on TV as well. 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:51.240 Oh cool. 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:52.720 He would present I think it was like a late 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:55.600 night thing and he would present old silent horror movies. 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:58.920 And there's an extra on the Mondo disc where I 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:01.199 think there it's an interview with Guillermo del Toro from 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:03.200 I want to say, like two thousand and two or something, 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.079 a good bit younger. But he reflects on this. He 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:11.600 reflects fondly on watching Montezuma on this television program, presenting 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:18.200 movies like Nosferatu. So Mantezuma became involved in avant garde 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:21.520 Mexican theater. After this, he became a collaborator with the 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:26.280 legendary Alejandro Jodorowski, serving as producer on his nineteen sixty 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:29.880 eight film Fando and Liss, as well as his famous 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.640 nineteen seventy metaphysical Western el Copo, and then he set 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:36.760 out to make his own horror films, which certainly stand 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:40.960 as fine examples of Mexican horror, but they were also 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:46.160 Montezuma's rebellion against mainstream film and established horror cinema in 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.320 Mexico as well. He was not a fan of traditional 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:53.079 Mexican horror cinema, stating in one interview quote, the Mexican 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.720 tradition for such films is very simplistic and very conformist. 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.520 In my opinion, in spite of their surface delirium. I 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:02.240 don't really like them very much. 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.400 What surface delirium? 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:08.719 Yeah, I found this really interesting, and I guess with 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:12.160 as with most like broad statements like this, you can 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:16.400 certainly point to counter examples from Mexican horror cinema and say, well, 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:18.719 you know, this is not mere surface delirium. Maybe goes 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:23.240 a bit deeper, but I get what he's saying. Like 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:26.040 if you look at, say a, you look at an 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:29.760 El Santo monster movie, and yes, there are these delirious 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:32.760 elements on the surface of things, but the basic structure 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:37.040 is going to be generally formulaic. There's nothing subversive there 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:40.560 there's no surprise in the outcome. And so what he 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:44.359 clearly sets out to do in his films is Montezuma, 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:47.360 that is to create a true depth of delirium, so 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:49.160 madness from bottom. 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:54.400 To top, not shallow depravity, but deep depravity. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:57.320 I guess I can see what he's saying that a 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.160 lot of these older Mexican horror films, while they might 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:04.760 have very weird sights and sounds or some strange things 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:08.080 going on, ultimately the story is going to be somewhat 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:10.720 predictable and its values are conventional. 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:11.480 Yeah. 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:13.920 Yeah, I don't know if I agree with that, but 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:15.040 I understand what he's saying. 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.720 Yeah, yeah, And again I think it's a criticism that 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:19.840 is going to apply to certain films more than others. 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:23.400 But it does seem to be like a motivating principle 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.160 for him, And when you look at his films, you 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:28.440 can see like, yeah, this is a guy that's trying 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:31.520 to really make the weirdness and the madness go from 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:36.440 bottom to top. So I was reading about this movie 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.960 in Montezuma in general in a book by Doyle Green. 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:44.360 He's a film critic and writer. The book is the 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:49.320 Mexican cinema of darkness, and he also points out that 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:53.480 Mexican horror films, especially Luca horror films, are big on 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:57.280 telling rather than showing. I think we can think we 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.400 can reflect on various examples where like Santo was having 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:03.040 a discussion with a scientist and they lay out all 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:06.480 the details, and so Montazuma is the opposite. He would 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:07.080 rather show you. 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:09.560 Yeah, well, I can see that in this film. Actually 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:11.720 this leans more on the other side. There's a lot 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.160 of stuff that it does not hold your hand. I 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.520 don't know what's going on in some parts, like I 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:19.960 really don't know why something happened sometimes or what it's 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:20.720 supposed to mean. 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:24.560 Yeah, and when there is an explanation, like when Father 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:28.160 Lazaro describes what sort of demon he thinks they're dealing with, 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:30.080 it really has no impact on anything. 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:30.560 Yeah. 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:32.880 Well that almost seemed like a parody. I've got that 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:35.440 line written down from later on, when he's like, oh, yeah, 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:40.680 it's a Type six devil or something like. It almost 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:44.200 seems like a parody of just the fussy taxonomy of 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:46.640 evil that the clerics are using here. 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:47.200 Yeah. 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:49.760 So, given all of this, it should come as no 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:53.640 surprise that Montazuma generally worked outside of the mainstream Mexican 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.520 film industry, at least in terms of financing and control. 0:16:56.600 --> 0:17:00.480 He still worked with notable professionals in Mexican filmmaking, and 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:04.160 it apparently fiercely retained his own creative control over his visions. 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.280 So his first film was nineteen seventy three's The Mansion 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:13.359 of Madness, released in the States and sometimes still referenced 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.840 listed in I Think in IMDb, and also sometimes streamable 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:20.720 under the title Doctor Tar's Torture Dungeon. It's based on 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:24.440 Edgar Allen Poe's The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather, 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.119 and it tells the story of an asylum where the 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:30.280 system of soothing has been abandoned in favor of a 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.640 new system of well, let's say, a system of cruelty. 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:36.399 And we quickly come to realize that this is the 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:39.480 case where oh, the inmates are running the asylum now, 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.080 and they're led by someone going by the name anyway 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:47.879 of doctor Millard. And this individual is played in the 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.239 movie by Claudio Brooke, who will be talking about here 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:52.680 in a minute. This film is perhaps more of a 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:56.240 dark surrealist comedy than a pure horror picture, though it 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.280 does have gothic horror elements. I saw this a couple 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:03.160 of years ago rather liked it. And this film, as 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:04.959 with Alucarda, was shot in English. 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:08.720 This might be a kind of strange comparison. But though 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.520 I haven't seen the movie, some of the clips I 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:14.520 have seen of Claudio Brooke in it, he a bit 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:17.360 reminds me of Graham Chapman from Money Python. 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:22.000 Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of absurdity in it because 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:25.280 he's you know, he ends up presenting himself initially as 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:31.399 maybe a revolutionary doctor who's running the asylum, and then 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:33.240 we quickly realized like, no, this was this was an 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:35.720 inmate of the asylum who's taken over. And so there's 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:40.600 a lot of toga wearing that ensues wild monologue's hysterical 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:44.240 laughter and so forth. And he does have blonde hair, 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:46.840 which certainly in that film, which adds to the. 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:51.680 Experience kind of yeah, shaggy blonde hair. We'll get to 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:53.680 more about Claudio Brooke in a minute, I'm sure, but 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:57.520 I am impressed with the the range that he gets 0:18:57.560 --> 0:18:59.160 to portray in Alucarda. 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:01.600 Oh Yeah, this is yeah, as we'll discuss this is 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:03.040 the case where he had got to do a dual 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:05.639 role and clearly had a lot of fun with it. 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:09.199 Yeah. Hard to imagine two different parts more different. 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:10.080 Yeah. Yeah. 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:15.240 So Mantazuma followed Mansion up with a Hollywood co production, 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:20.480 nineteen seventy five's Mary Mary, Bloody Mary. I haven't seen 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:23.280 this one, but it is a modern erotic vampire film 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:27.200 and also sort of a jallo film, starring Christina Ferrera 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:31.000 and featuring John Carodine in a small role. It was 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:33.680 also shot in English, and it's also said to be 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:34.200 quite good. 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.720 You know my taste for jallo. I'm intrigued. I'll have 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:40.720 to give this a look up. And then came alocarda, 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:43.440 this is which we're talking about today. Montazum is best 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:48.240 remembered and most controversial film due to its comparatively racy 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:51.760 content and certainly it's blasphemous themes. It draws on both 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:55.680 avant garde cinema and European Gothic hor traditions, and I 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:58.520 would say just feels absolutely self assured in its vision. 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:02.000 We may ponder and head scratch over what that vision 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:05.760 ultimately is and what he's trying to say, but it 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:11.000 seems very confident in its delivery. After these three big pictures, 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:13.920 Montezuma's output was a bit more limited. He directed a 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:16.760 nineteen eighty three crime thriller title To Kill a Stranger, 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:21.120 which co starred Dean Stockwell and Donald Pleasants, and after 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:24.480 that his projects saw even smaller audiences. There's nineteen eighty 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:27.119 six as Welcome Maria and nineteen ninety four as The 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:30.680 Food of Fear, And at some point he wanted to 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.920 do a follow up to Alocarta titled Alokarta Rises from 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:36.359 the Tomb, but that never came to fruition before his 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:40.920 death in nineteen ninety five. As for other writers, let's see, 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:45.520 there's Alexis Antita Uroyo. These are the only screenplay credits 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:47.720 on the databases I was looking at. And then there's 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:52.720 also Yolanda Lopez Montezuma, also credited with a writer, also 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:55.240 with no other credits. I'm not sure if this is 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:59.959 a relative or not just a name without much additional contact. 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:04.280 And then it's also typically noted that this film is 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:10.840 to some degree based on the novel Carmilla by Sheridan Lefanieu, 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:14.480 who lived eighteen fourteenth through eighteen seventy three, Irish author 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:18.960 who wrote, Yeah, eighteen seventy two's gothic novella Carmilla, a 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:22.760 foundational vampire novel and one that explores a lesbian relationship 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:25.640 with I'm to understand some amount of nuance. I think 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:28.760 I started reading this book at this novella at some point, 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:30.840 set it down and didn't pick it back up. 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:35.520 That's on me, not on the novella. But I can't 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:38.240 speak to it with much doubt because I haven't finished it. 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:43.119 But this is worth noting, a vampire novel that pre 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:47.880 dates Dracula. Yes, absolutely, Yeah, so Dracula wasn't the first 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:49.400 wasn't even the first big one. 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:52.400 Yeah. As we've discussed on the show before, Dracula as 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:55.679 a literary work is not as old as a lot 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.520 of people think it is, or may sort of casually 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:00.760 think of it as being. You know, we offer mate, 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:03.640 we just lumped Dracula in with Frankenstein, when in fact, 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:05.720 you know, Frankenstein is an older work. 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:08.000 Yeah. One of the weird things we've talked about is 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:14.040 how Dracula was only a few decades old when Nosferatu 0:22:14.160 --> 0:22:16.600 the movie was made. Yeah, you know, it's like adapting 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:20.879 a movie today from a novel published in the nineties. 0:22:21.280 --> 0:22:25.120 Yeah, crazy. All right, let's talk about the cast here. 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:29.680 I'm gonna as I've done recently, I'm going to stick 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:32.440 with the idea that if your character is the title 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:34.800 of the film, even if you don't have top billing, 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:37.160 we're going to talk about you first. And so that's 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:40.200 going to be the case here with Alokarda. She was 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:43.720 played by Tina Romero born nineteen forty nine. 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:46.840 What a force of nature she is in this movie. 0:22:47.000 --> 0:22:52.360 She is fantastic and she is so scary, bringing lead, 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:55.879 heavy intensity in the eyes. She has this this just 0:22:56.280 --> 0:22:59.200 burning stare where you feel like she could she could 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:02.119 literally set you on fire with her eyes, and turns 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:02.720 out she can't. 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:05.840 Yeah, yeah, there is, Yeah, she's able to. It's just 0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:08.960